Evaporation rate higher than expected......

[Turfgrass]

Looks like more was boiled off than was expected and now short in the fermenter. Should water be added to make up the difference. The evap removed close to gallon more and I ended up adding my entire 1500 ml yeast starter to add back to the fermenter and get me to 1/2 gal shy of 5 gal. What do you recommend?

 

[beermanpete]

Yes, you can add water to make up for evaporation. If you add to the fermenter after pitching, boil and chill the water first. On future batches add boiling water to the boil kettle during the last few minutes of the boil.

 

[Genuine]

Once you get your system dialed in, you'll figure out how much to have pre-boil and won't have to worry about it. I'm on the fence about adding water after to get volume. If I'm short a bit, I'll check gravity and as long as it's close or more than what I was shooting for, then I'm fine with that. I would definitely boil and cool the water that you want to use to top off to reduce any chance of infection, etc. I personally haven't added water to mine, I just go with whatever volume I have.

 

[Brak23]

I recently upgraded to a 15g SS Brewtech boil kettle. Its wide and tall, but I only brew 5 gallon batches. I ran into the same problem with my evaporation rate being insane (lost a gallon in 30 minutes). But I learned its a few factors, but the biggest of which that my large pot makes a larger surface area to boil off and thus my boil off rate is higher.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

You could add water, but I would just leave it as is and adjust for the boil-off on the next batch.